


A Meeting of Two Wizards

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 00:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17293928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: The Doctor and Ace land come across a ramshackle house in a forest, and a man named Radagast.





	A Meeting of Two Wizards

 Ace rushed out of the Tardis first, eager to see where they had arrived, as was usual. “A forest,” she remarked back to the open door. “Might be promising.”

 “Might be?” the Doctor echoed, stepping out and locking the door behind him.

 “Well, I fancy a nice relaxing stroll in the forest, anyway,” Ace replied.

 “Do you now?” the Doctor chuckled. “Very well. Let us see what it has to offer.”

 They’d been walking for several minutes when Ace spotted a house through the trees. She stopped and tilted her head when she realized there was actually a tree growing up out the middle of it. “That’s a weird-looking house, wouldn’t you say, Professor?”

 “I wouldn’t recommend saying that to the owner’s face,” the Doctor lightly chided. “Come on.” He led the way to the house.

 “Definitely weird,” Ace reiterated when they got to the ramshackle wooden with grass-thatched roof house. “But a good sort of weird.” She looked up at the tree that had indeed grown up through the roof of the house. “Where are we, anyway?”

 The Doctor didn’t answer as he went up to the door to peek inside. “Anyone home?” he called out. He turned back to Ace a few seconds later, and shrugged. “No one home.”

 Ace simply flashed a small smile before going off to explore around the outside of the house. It wasn’t very big, and she stopped to see if she could get a look inside a birdhouse on the backside.

 Ace turned at the loud rustling from the forest nearby, and her eyes widened when something burst through the trees and bushes. A wooden sled attached to several giant rabbits? And the man on the back of it, she certainly didn’t instantly know what to make of. He had a long grey-brown beard and matching hair under a similarly coloured hat with odd flaps sticking out that gave the impression of rodent ears. His brown-coloured robes had certainly seen better days. He carried a wooden staff with a purple crystal settled into the top. And wait, what was that white substance on one side of his hair? There was certainly something quite familiar about his face.

 They stared at each other for a few seconds. “Uh… hello,” Ace finally greeted. “Professor?” she called out to the Doctor without turning from the strange man.

 “Professor? Oh no, I’m no-“ The stranger stopped as the Doctor rushed around to Ace. “Oh, you didn’t mean me, did you?” His voice was also eerily familiar to Ace, as well.

 “Hello. We don’t mean to intrude,” the Doctor greeted. “We were simply walking in these fine woods when we happened upon your house. This is your home, I take it?”

 “Yes, yes it is.” The man let out a short nervous laugh, and got off the sled. “I wasn’t expecting any visitors today, or most days, really.”

 “I’m the Doctor, and this is my friend Ace.”

 The stranger’s brows raised, though it seemed more a gesture of anxiety than anything else. He lowered what looked like the business end of his staff, and said, “I am Radagast. Radagast the Brown.” He looked the other two up and down. “I certainly wasn’t expecting such… strangely-dressed visitors.”

 “Hey, you’re not exactly normally-“ Ace broke off at the light elbow to her side. She glanced down at herself for a second. “I mean… I suppose we are, for around here.”

 Radagast turned his attention to the rabbits, setting them free of the sled reins. They hopped away to eat some food. Radagast picked up a nearby hedgehog and grinned as he stroked its head and cooed at it.

 Radagast flinched when he turned back to the Doctor and Ace, as though he had completely forgotten they were there. “Oh, right. You…” he glanced around for a few seconds, then invited, “You may come in, if you like. If not, you can stay out here?” He opened the door and entered, the hedgehog still in hand.

 Ace raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, and commented, “Definitely a strange bloke,” before they followed him.

 “Just remember that we’re just as strange to him,” the Doctor said quietly.

 “I know,” Ace replied.

 They stepped inside, and it looked just as ramshackle and precarious as the exterior. Ace decided that the house definitely fit the owner as she watched Radagast putter around the uneven floor.

 “You live here by yourself?” Ace inquired.

 “No.” Radagast set the hedgehog on the table and pulled out the only chair for one of them to sit in. “Oh, you mean without other people? In that respect, I do.”

 “What else did you think I meant?” Ace replied, taking the chair with the Doctor’s permission.

 Radagast shrugged and apologized, “I don’t have much to offer in terms of refreshments.”

 “That’s perfectly alright. We’ve already eaten, thank you,” the Doctor responded as he bent over to look at some objects on the shelves.

 “Don’t touch anything!” Radagast warned.

 “I’m only admiring,” the Doctor assured.

 Ace smiled and petted the hedgehog when it came over to her side of the table. “Cute little fella.” She looked up to Radagast. “So, what is it that you do? Rabbit-sled racing?” she joked.

 “Racing? No. I simply took them out for exercise earlier.” The strange man took a deep breath. “I am simply here, tending to what needs to be tended to.”

 Ace laughed lightly. “I guess that’s fair enough.”

 A small bird flew into the house through the open door, and to Ace’s amazement, Radagast seemed to have a full conversation with it. Something about the state of the nearby area. It seemed well, from what Ace could gather of Radagast’s responses.

 “You can talk to birds?” the girl asked after the bird had flown back out.

 “Among others.”

 “Other animals? That’s so cool!”

 Radagast bent over to pick up an unlit candle. Without any matches or other means to light it, he simply breathed onto the wick, and it caught alight. Ace noticed the other candles dotted around the small room seemingly light themselves. Radagast placed the one in his hands on the table. “One of my unique wizardly talents,” he said quietly. “Or so Gandalf tells me.”

 “Wizardly?” Ace caught. “As in a magical wizard?”

 “What other kind of wizard would you take me to mean?”

 “Can you… can you show us something magical? Like, really magical?”

 “Ace,” the Doctor chided from his position on the edge of the bed. “He doesn’t have to entertain us.”

 Ace’s face fell. “Sorry.”

 Radagast considered the pair. “Where do you come from? I know of no peoples who wear clothing like that. You’re of the race of Men, that much I can tell. Admittedly, my interactions with people is quite minimal, but there is something… strange about you.”

 “Neither here nor there,” the Doctor answered.

 Ace rolled her eyes at the answer. “We travel around a lot. I’m from Perivale.”

 Radagast seemed content with that answer, and pulled a small cloth bag from his pocket. He dumped out the contents, which looked like food crumbs. The hedgehog hurried over to it and started eating. The wizard petted down its back and smiled warmly at it.

 Ace continued, “So, the Doctor won’t admit this, but we don’t always end up where we mean to. Where are we?”

 “Near the western edge of the Greenwood forest,” Radagast answered airily. He made a face. “Unless they’ve changed the name since I last checked. That’s something I’ll have to ask Gandalf next time he visits, along with… oh, what was it…” His voice trailed into incoherent mumblings.

 Ace leaned over to whisper to the Doctor, “He’s a bit mad, like you.” She didn’t bother to mention the other things Radagast had in similar to her friend. Surely he would’ve noticed those things, too.

 The Doctor hummed. “Yes, I suppose we are a bit.”

 Radagast seemed to forget about them again, as he went outside without a word. Ace and the Doctor followed, and watched for a moment as he tended to two horses.

 Then Ace mentioned, “The Doctor’s been mistaken for a wizard before.”

 “Who said I was ‘mistaken’ for one?” the Doctor teased.

 “Oh, come off it, Professor,” Ace rolled her eyes.

 Radagast continued petting one horse as he looked to them in interest. “Has he, now?”

 “Oh yeah. Back where I come from, we have a legend of a great wizard named Merlin, who lived centuries ago. We recently faced off against some people who thought the Doctor here was him.”

 The Doctor simply shrugged. “I play whatever part I need to in the situation. If they believe me to be Merlin, then Merlin I shall be.”

 “Merlin? I have not heard that name, and certainly not in relation to a wizard,” Radagast mused. “A wizard of another place, then?”

 “I suppose the Doctor is a bit of a wizard himself, even without the whole Merlin thing.”

 Radagast smiled. “And what is he a wizard of?”

 The Doctor gazed into Radagast’s eyes and brought his finger to his lips. Ace folded her arms and sighed, “Always have to be so mysterious.”

 “I see,” Radagast replied, holding the other man’s gaze.

 Ace glanced between them holding eye contact for several seconds. Were they communicating without words? The air around them suddenly felt strange somehow, though Ace couldn’t put any specific sensation to it. They even looked away from each other at the same time. “Okay… that was a bit spooky,” Ace muttered.

 “A great wizard, indeed,” Radagast chuckled, moving away from the horses to the gathered giant rabbits.

 “Can I have a ride on your sled?” Ace blurted out. She stuck her tongue out at the Doctor when he tutted at her.

 Radagast knelt down to pet a few of the rabbits, then glanced up at the sky. “It’ll be dark soon, but I suppose I could.” He addressed the rabbits directly. “If you’re up for a short ride?”

 The rabbits seemed to talk amongst themselves for a moment before addressing Radagast. The wizard smiled and looked up to Ace. “They say they will.”

 “Ace!” the girl exclaimed.

 The Doctor shook his head in amusement, and approved.

 “Come along… Ace, is it?” Radagast invited, heading over to the sled with the rabbits.

 “No snooping while we’re away, Professor,” Ace teased.

 “I do not ‘snoop.’”

 “Whatever you say,” the girl laughed. A couple minutes later, she was sitting on the sled, with Radagast standing behind her. The wizard whistled, and they were off.

 Ace whooped as they sped past the Doctor and horses, and dodged a low branch when they maneuvered through the trees. She almost couldn’t believe that she was rushing through a forest on a sled pulled by giant rabbits, and their speed amazed her. It also made her wonder what the rest of this place was like, with an actual wizard who could talk to animals who lived in a forest. She hoped the Doctor would want to explore around more.

 Radagast whistled a couple minutes later, and the rabbits stopped. Ace turned around to see the wizard step off the sled to start picking some plants. She watched him for a moment, and a thought came to her.

 “Do you ever get lonely?”

 “Lonely?” Radagast didn’t look up from his task. “Why should I get lonely?”

 Ace shrugged. “I don’t know.”

 “I have all the company I need.” He slightly smiled. “I expect Gandalf and I will cross paths soon enough. His current journey should bring him my way.”

 Ace got up from the sled to approach the man. “Is he like you? A wizard?”

 Radagast nodded. “He has different talents, but yes.” He glanced into his small bag, and determined, “That should be enough.” He finally looked to Ace. “Is your Doctor lonely?”

 “No,” Ace answered quickly. Then she thought for a short moment. “Well, I don’t think so. He has me, anyway. He hasn’t let on if he is, otherwise.”

 “Good, very good.” Radagast got back on the sled.

 Ace hurried back onto it before he could absentmindedly leave her behind. She grabbed onto the back and hopped on beside him. She grinned broadly as they sped along through the brush and trees, enjoying herself immensely.

 Ace turned her head to look at the man, and he turned his head to face her as well. His smile matched hers, and his eyes twinkled in a way that was familiar and yet not at the same time.

 Radagast suddenly ducked and yanked Ace down with him, and Ace caught the flash of wood overhead. They straightened up a second later and both refocused on what was ahead of them.

 They returned to the house a few minutes later, and the sled stopped next to the Doctor, who was petting the horses.

 “Enjoy the ride?” the Doctor asked his friend.

 “Oh yes! It was great!” Ace turned to Radagast. “Thanks so much.” She knelt down to pet the rabbits that were being undone from the sled. A couple nuzzled against her legs. “I hope we didn’t wear you out.”

 “They’ve had much longer journeys,” Radagast assured.

 The three of them spent the rest of the time together talking, mostly about where they were. The Doctor and Ace didn’t stay much longer, and started to make their way back to the Tardis when the sky began to darken through the tree canopy. The Doctor invited Radagast along to simply show him.

 “A large box?” the wizard asked when they came to it. He walked around it, holding up his staff. He laid one hand on the side, and pulled back. “An energy, one not of this world.” When he came back around to the front to the other two, he nodded, “A wizard of another world, indeed.”

 They then said their goodbyes. Radagast slightly bowed his head to the pair. “Wherever you travel next, I wish you the best.”

 “It was great to meet you,” Ace beamed.

 “Likewise,” the Doctor agreed. “May you continue to watch over this place.” He opened the Tardis door and went inside.

 Ace stayed on the threshold and watched the wizard skitter away and disappear into the thick forest. The motion and hat making him look mouse-like. She turned to the Tardis interior, but didn’t go fully in yet. “That was weird, but in a good way.”

 “Oh?” the Doctor looked up from the Tardis console.

 “He looked and sounded a lot like you, and… felt a bit like you. But it wasn’t you.”

 “Kindred spirit,” the Doctor remarked.

 “It’s more than that, surely?”

 The Doctor shrugged. “Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

 Ace snorted. “He might be a little less maddening than you. A little more mad, but less maddening.”

 The Doctor grinned at her, until Ace laughed, “Alright, Merlin.” She closed the door and joined him at the console.


End file.
